HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL: Pennington picks up first-round win against Nottingham

By RICH FISHER, For The Trentonian

Friday, February 15, 2013

PENNINGTON — Jessica Ratner went from scorer to playmaker while playing the role of rebounder and defender all the way through.

Not a bad effort for someone going to Bucknell for soccer.

Ratner celebrated her homecourt farewell with 15 points, nine rebounds, five assists and some stellar ball denial in helping the fifth-seeded Pennington School’s girls’ basketball team to a 58-35 win over 12th-seeded Nottingham in a first-round Mercer County Tournament game yesterday.

“She filled up the stat sheet,” coach Chad Bridges said. “This was a huge win for our girls and I was really happy for our seniors (Ratner and Brittany Richards), who put so much into the program.”

Richards is the Red Raiders leading scorer but Ratner took that role in the first half by scoring 14 points thanks to four 3-pointers – all which hit nothing but net.

“Sometimes you have those games,” she said. “I know how it feels to be on the other end when you can’t hit anything. So whenever I have the opportunity I try to take it.

“But it’s also my teammates looking for me, getting me the ball. They’re a huge part of it. Without them working to get me the ball I wouldn’t be able to hit those shots.”

Ratner’s early explosion helped Pennington (11-6) take control. She hit a trey to close the first quarter and give the Raiders a 12-9 lead. Annisa Holman kept the Northstars in it with eight of her 19 points in the period.

“Jessica is a streaky shooter and when she gets hot she can shoot with the best of them,” said Bridges, whose team plays Newark Academy tomorrow in the Prep B state semifinals. “She got hot early, we were able to get them out of the zone and attack from there. She was ready.”

The second quarter started with Ratner sandwiching two more 3-ponters around a Holman foul shot, which started Pennington on a 16-2 run. The Northstars shot 0-for-17 in the quarter; Holman exited with foul trouble, Nottingham (8-14) switched to man and Ratner started setting up her teammates with nice passes for easy lay-ups.

“There’s definitely a temptation to keep shooting,” she admitted. “But Mr. Bridges always tells us it’s a collective team effort. We’re not going to win games if we’re not working together as a team and trying to get each other the ball.

“I try as hard as I can to get points on my own but at the same time I try to get my teammates involved and get them some points and work together.”

Her efforts helped Pennington to a 30-13 halftime lead and made the second half academic, although Richards came to life with nine of her 11 points in the third quarter. Brittney Bridges added 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Nottingham coach Lauren Kelly felt her team struggled to come off the high of winning a Valley Division title Thursday night.

“We just honestly didn’t come out ready to go,” Kelly said.

Ratner knew the Raiders were ready to go in order to justify their No. 5 seed.

“Nobody thought we would get this seed, I don’t think we expected it,” she said. “So we needed to show people we belonged here. I think we proved to anybody today that we know we belong here.”